Sounds pretty serious doesn't it? Well, maybe it is. I just wanted to get a few of my thoughts out, both on evolution and the supposed state of decline of the planet. Now, don't get all up in arms about the word 'supposed' in there. I am definitely for doing what we can to help the environment, but I am not sure that it's the end of days quite yet.
I believe that we evolved into what we are today. The various components of the biosphere exerted pressure on our ancestors; they had to defend themselves from predators, fight over resources, and compete for the best mates. That's what I believe. At some point, though, we ceased to genetically evolve. Now, instead, our technology and patterns of thought are forced to evolve to accommodate our changing surroundings. I will explain what I mean in the next few paragraphs; after that, anyone who thinks differently or the same can feel free to comment. Please, read the whole article before doing so, though. Also, keep in mind that much of it is conjecture. I haven't sourced anything because this is all my own rambling, based on a general sort of knowledge that I've built up over the years. It's liable to contain a few fallacies, and you are welcome to point them out.
Over time, we developed the ability to synthesize concepts in our mind. We used these concepts to build tools, start fires, and other things that the early human accomplished. With these tools we improved our ability to hunt and forage and find shelter. With fire, we cooked meat and kept warm and staved off predators. With the ability to think, we had gained an enormous evolutionary advantage over other animals. I would like to propose that, at this point, if you could narrow it down to a point, human thought began and, more importantly, began to evolve.
Thought continued to make our lives safer and more efficient. We began to realize that delegating tasks to different members of our social groups made the tasks essential to survival more efficient (though, this isn't actually a concept novel to human beings). People split up and began to specialize. Not very much at first... perhaps we first split into hunters, gatherers, and preparers of the food. Then the hunters split into hunters and trappers, and the food preparers became also the keepers of the shelter and starters of the fires, and bearers of water. We changed, adapted, realized more efficiency, discovered new ways to keep ourselves alive. All through thought. In some small way we were probably still evolving physically, as the tribes with the stronger arms managed to survive drought, but the main benefactor of the concept of evolution was the concept of thought. Ideas were tried, and those that failed were discarded. Those that worked were passed down through the generations, and improved upon.
The evolution of the idea of foraging gave us mining. The evolution of the idea of a fire gave us energy. The idea of sheltering ourselves from the elements gave us the idea of clothing, and the idea of protecting ourselves from animals and other humans with walls. The idea of separation of duties gave us trade gave us numbers gave us money gave us math gave us science... you get the idea, and it's not quite that that simple, but you can see how our progress became more about evolution of thought than physical evolution.
I am getting tired though. In subsequent posts, I would like to put forth my idea that physical evolution is all but nonexistent for human beings. I would also like to talk about why I think that, because of our move from physical evolution to evolution of thought, 'Mother Nature' has lost the ability to control or contain us. I might tie what I have been calling the evolution of thought to memetic theory as well. We'll see. It's my blog so I don't have to decide quite yet :).
2 comments:
I beg to differ regarding the physical evolution of human existence being 'non-existent.' Humans definitely are undergoing changes physically, the 'problem' is Homo sapiens sapiens have only been around for a brief period of time ('geologically speaking'), and thus, we have not had time to undergo major changes. If; however, we look further back into 'human' history, in the last 7 million years of our evolution, we have come a long way, both mentally and physically. Even so, there are physical changes that are apparent within in modern populations, like the ever decreasing size of mandibles (and maxillae) - which is reflected in the gradual loss of our third molars (I, like my mother, only had two wisdom teeth). In time, I am sure other vestigial organs like erector papillae and appendices will also gradually disappear. And, who knows, maybe new organs will replace them in their stead at some point in our history... if we don't destroy the planet or ourselves first.
That is interesting; I did not think of all those changes that human beings have gone through.
Do you believe in evolution? If so, how do you think those changes have come about? I am struggling with the idea because there appears to me to be no mechanism of natural selection happening there. How are some traits moving forward while others are dying out?
However, I think that even with physical changes we have still progressed so much further on the mental front. Maybe that is linked to our mental faculties, though, beyond our collective human knowledge.
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